Tag Archives: heaven

Here is a brief recap of my study thus far of this prayer for the Ephesian believers:

Like some people who like to read the last chapter to see if the book is going to be good, I started near the end of the request-portion of Paul’s prayer to see where he was heading. The end result of Paul’s prayer, should God in his grace grant it (and he will because he inspired it!) is that we are “filled with all the fullness of God.” This phrase points to the completion of God’s work in us as he forms in us his very image and we become like him in all his moral perfection and beauty. Wow!

But how will he get us there? Paul prays first that we will experience the love of Jesus for us as the Holy Spirit reveals to us in our inner being that we are loved by him. This experience of Jesus’ love has a rooting and grounding effect in our lives. But here is where things start to really rev up!

Sometimes I wonder how many times this book sells because people assume it was written by JOHN Piper. If you aren’t familiar with either Don or John, let me introduce them to you. Don Piper is a pastor who has written a book chronicling his experiences surrounding a terrible automobile accident. He believes that he died and spent 90 minutes in heaven before God miraculously brought him back to life.

John Piper, on the other hand, also a preacher, has written dozens of books in which he presents the glorious gospel of the Savior, Jesus Christ, who died on a cross and suffered the condemnation and wrath of God that sinful humanity deserves so that those who are united with him through faith can experience reconciliation with God and the full enjoyment of God’s glory for all eternity in heaven.

In this post, I want to take a brief look at DON Piper’s book in the light of Scripture… Continue reading →

I was thinking today about the difficulty we have in truly understanding the extent of God’s mercy and grace toward his children. Let’s start with some definitions: By mercy, I’m referring to God’s love expressed in his not treating … Continue reading →